Hard disks as the most commonly used external storage devices of computers have been used for storing large amount of user data and system information, thus the security and reliability thereof are very important. While the misoperation of the user, defects of management software of hard disk data and the attacks of the computer viruses may destroy useful data on the hard disks. Some of the boot type viruses may further destroy the parameter file on the hard disk, causing the software system of computer breaking down and unable to start normally. Therefore it is necessary to make a back-up copy of the hard disk data.
A hard disk rescue card is used for backing-up the hard disk data in the prior art, which is usually mounted on an extension slot or external extension interface of the computer, corresponding parameters shall be set and an installation program shall be run after the mounting of the rescue card, thus system resources shall be occupied. If the software therein is to be upgraded, then the ROM chip for storing the software in the card and the installation program shall be upgraded as well, thus causing inconvenience. In addition the maintenance of the hardware become complicated. Since part of the program and parameters of such rescue card are stored in the operating system of the hard disk, if the hard disk is damaged due to virus or other causes, the rescue card will loss its functions. Furthermore, an ordinary rescue card may only protect one hard disk, and it is possible to be inconsistent with the mother board of the computer, therefore the effect of the hard disk rescue card is limited, and the security and reliability of the hard disk data can not be protected perfectly.